In 2009, during the early days of the current wave of superhero cinema, Zack Snyder brought Alan Moore’s acclaimed comic book limited series Watchmen to life for Warner Bros. Moore’s work is a beast of interconnected and referential storylines, creating quite a challenge for Snyder while making it all the more impressive that he pulled the film off as well as he did. While the feature did fairly well with critics, it wasn’t a runaway hit at the box office; many credited this result to the unwieldy nature of the story, which would conceivably be better suited for a serial adaptation.

It’s with that in mind that we report that Snyder has been meeting with HBO to talk about a Watchmen TV series. Our sources tell us that the meetings about adapting the DC Comics property have taken place, but unfortunately we don’t have any details as to whether this would be a prequel series, a re-imagining of the events of the Watchmen story itself, or a sequel series.

It’s also worth noting that HBO is notoriously difficult to predict until a series has a hard release date. For example, they couldn’t reach a budget compromise with David Fincher for his Utopia series, and shut down the production of Fincher’s half-hour comedy series that he was developing simultaneously. Clout and/or popularity doesn’t automatically mean a greenlight, as further evidenced by the network famously passing on Noah Baumbach‘s star-studded The Corrections pilot.

So while we know that meetings about a Watchmen TV series have taken place, nothing has been greenlit as of this writing. But with Game of Thrones‘ end looming in the next couple of years and original drama programming in short supply, surely HBO is looking for that next big hit. Producing a Warner Bros. property – especially one as potentially huge as Watchmen – under their shared Time Warner parental umbrella sounds like a solid move.

Again, as of this writing, all we know is that Snyder is meeting with HBO to talk about a Watchmen series; any details beyond that point are educated guesses on our part.

Update: HBO has confirmed our exclusive with this statement: “Preliminary discussions regarding Watchmen have occurred but we have no additional information and no deals are in place.” Our original story follows.

Update: HBO has confirmed our exclusive with this statement: “Preliminary discussions regarding Watchmen have occurred but we have no additional information and no deals are in place.” Our original story follows.

The rumor is confirmed but no deal has been made yet.

In other words, the folks at DC/WB want to do something with the property, but they have no idea what.

Seems to me like that's been the status quo since the damn book was first published.

_________________This is truly a madhouse. And I'm the lunatic running it. I've spent three years wondering if I should be proud or ashamed.

I don't know, I don't see Snyder retelling the same content he adapted on film so soon (if one is to believe he's the one spearheading this project). I'm betting on an adaptation of the prequel comics, although Watchmen itself fits a TV mini-series.